Fire-grate.



No. 731,229. PATENTED JUNE 16, 1903 I. SGHOEFFLER.

FIRE GRATE.

APPLICATION FILED DBO. 111111 2.

no MODEL.

u n m w Win-um nu Illllllllllll'nllll! m n m u i y WITNESSES: IN VE N TOR ATTORNEY Patented June 16, 1903.

l TEioE.

PATENT IDA SCIIOEFFLER, OF LOUISVILL 1, KENTUCKY.

FIRE-G RATE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 731,229, dated June 16, 1903.

Application filed December 11, 1902. Serial No. 134,828. (No model.)

To all whom it nuty concern.-

Be it known that I, IDA SCHOEFFLER, a citizen of the United States, residing at Louisville, in the county of Jefferson and State of Kentucky, have invented a new and useful Fire-Grate, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to improvements in grates for fire-boxes which may be cleaned by rotating the bars of the grate; and the objects of myimprovemeut are the saving of fuel, the proper admission and distribution of air, facility of operating, simplicity of construction, and durability. I attain these objects by means of the mechanism illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in Which Figure 1 is a plan View; Fig. 2, a vertical transverse section on the line A B of Fig. 1, and Fig. 3 an end elevation.

Similar reference characters refer to similar parts throughout the several views of the drawings.

The stationary frame 1, with the fingers and 11 and the rotary bars 2 and 3, constitutes the body of the invention.

Difficulty has been experienced heretofore with rotary, oscillating, and dumping grates from clinkers and hard pieces of fuel lodging in the openings formed by the movement of the parts of the grate and having to be crushed before the parts could be brought into normal position again. I have overcome this difficulty by the device herein described. My invention also eliminates the danger of leaving the grate open inadvertently, so that the fuel drops through into the ash-pan and is wasted.

By referring to the drawings it will be seen that the frame 1 is rectangular. At each end of the frame is a pair of U-shaped depres-' sions 12, which serve as journal-boxes. Extending inward from the sides of the rectangular frame, and preferably cast integral therewith, are alternate long and short gratefingers 1 0 and 11, respectively. Journaled in the Us 12 is a pair of bars or shafts 2 and 3, substantially parallel with each other and with the sides of frame 1. Flanges 9 are formed, preferably, integral with and in staggered relation on bars 2 and 3.

9 of the one shaft extend into the spaces between-those of the other shaft and are so The flanges --,spaced relative to each other that approxiniatelyone-half-inch clear space is left between them forthe admission of air. The fingers 10 and 11 slant downward toward the bars 2 3 in such a manner that their upper surfaces if extended would meet the axis of the adjacent bars. The long fingers 10 almost touch the surface of the bars and the short fingers 11 almost touch the periphery of the flanges 9. One end of the bars, preferably the front end, is squared, as at 6 and 7, and on these squared ends are placed the gears 4 and 5, which are secured in place by pins 8 and 13. The gears t and 5 mesh and cause bars 2 and 3 to rotate in opposite directions. The right-hand bar2 has its squared end 6 extended to receive a crank (not illustrated) for rotating the bars. The bars 2 and 3 are journaled below the surface of frame 1 at such depth that the upper surface of flanges 9 and fingers 10 and 11 form substantially a pan.

The mode of operating my grate will now be understood. If the grate is used in a stove, the usual fire-box, with suitable firebrick or metal lining, is above it for holding the fuel. Either hard or soft coal may be used. If ashes have accumulated and the grate needs cleaning, a crank is applied at 6 and the bars 2 and 3 are therewith rotated to the right in the direction of the arrows, Fig. 2. If'there were more than two rotary bars, the upper surfaces of some of'them would rotate toward each other and crush the fuel and clinker between them, thus wasting the fuel and resisting the effort to turn them. The same would be the effect if bars 2 and 3 were rotated in the direction opposite that indicated by the arrows; but if turned as indicated there is no such tendency and the bars move easily. If the disks 9 met plane walls at the sides of frame 1, there would be a jamming effect here; but any coke or clinker that may be adhering to the periphery of flanges 9 is readily stripped off by fingers 11 and-pushed up on the surface of said fingers, and if coke or clinker has formed in the spaces between adjacent flanges 9 it is as readily raked off by fingers 10- and held in the fire-box. If the grate is to be cleared of everything, one or both bars 2 3 may be lifted out.

It will be understood that the shape of frame 1 may be varied to adapt it to difierent shapes of stoves, as round for round stoves, in which case the fingers at the middle on line A B may be longer and those on either side in proportion, and if more grate surface is required the pairs of'bars may be duplicated and a double set of fingers 10 ll placed between adjacent pairs of bars; so, also, in the matter of the bars 2 3. The flanges 9 instead of being arranged in staggered relation may be so disposed that those forming a pair rotate in the same plane.

I am aware of Patent No. 299,616, and I do not claim, broadly, the principle of rotary bars and disks in staggered relation interspaced,

with the surface of said rotary bars, and so inclined and disposed that their upper surfaces, if extended, would coincidewith the axes of said rotary bars, substantially as and for the purpose specified.

2. In a grate, the combination of a frame provided with journal-bearings, a pair of round rotary bars journaled in said frame and geared together and adapted to rotate in opposite directions and-in such direction that their upper surfaces travel away from each other, a series of equally-spaced flanges on each of the said pair of bars, two series of fingers extending from said frame, each series comprising alternate long and short fingers, the long fingers extending into proximity with said bars and the short fingers extending into proximity with the peripheries of said flanges, substantially as and for the purposes specified.

IDA SGHOEF FLER.

Witnesses:

W. W.. BARNES, J. T. SHAPINSKY 

